A group of retired NASA engineers looking to develop a spacegoing seaplane - or seagoing spaceplane - have suffered a setback, with a prototype craft reportedly exploding during tests at the weekend.
The Advent space seaplane concept
High and dry.
Pic courtesy of the X-Prize Foundation.
The Daily News of Galveston County …

COMMENTS

Anti submarine blimps?

Like the ones you see in war films that they used to float up so that aeroplanes would catch on them?

This has to be the most outside the box DARPA concept ever - "I know. Lets try and catch submarines, by floating big balloons up in the air. Balloons tethered by cables so that if the submarine catches on the cable, it'll cause it to crash and burn. Its the one place that the submarines will never expect us to try to catch them: UP IN THE FRIKKIN SKY!"

Jon Double Nice

Been there

The Sports Car Club of America also holds autocross meets there. I also recall that a road race team was testing Corvettes there as well. A big, flat, paved bunch of nothing that's not particularly near anything at all.

I think the idea of anti-submarine blimps was the appeal of their extended loitering time over their mission area. This was, of course, some sixty-plus frikken years ago, so it may sound a little peculiar to the contemporary urbanite.

@Jon

You're thinking of barrage ballons. Anti-submarine blimps were used in WWII for search and rescue missions, anti-sub patrols, and escorting convoys. Their big advantage was that they could stay aloft for 60 hours.

@Jon Double Nice

Exactly my thoughts on the matter, until I recalled some vague memory of a technical difference between a blimp and a barrage balloon (thanks MikeG - I couldn't remember for the life of me what they were called!) and presumed they were talking about the old WWI trick of dropping hand-held bombs out the sides of aircraft at them there dastardly Jerries...

Anti Submarine Blimps in Texas?

OK I can see the concept of anti-submarine blimps, but Texas seems one hell of a long way from anywhere that enemy submarines were operating in any significant numbers.

So there are two possibilities:

Firstly, that the authorities decided to base them there to stop the enemy getting at them. The ultimate in keeping your powder dry, keep your weapons where the enemy will never see them.

Or secondly, that it was all a big cover up for what the base was really there for. What's that madam? You saw a UFO flying over your house. No, no, it was an anti-submarine blimp. Now if you'll just look into this object...

RE: Water comment

The pollution problem is not that bad, given that the fuel is liquid methane and oxygen. If it burns, you get carbon dioxide and water, which is pretty harmless. Oxygen and methane are not bad either, except that methane is a hothouse gas. But even in the quantities needed for a space plane, it would be insignificant. The fragments of the ship itself are probably worse, but they need not be bad. If the hull is made of carbon composites and aluminium, it will be relatively harmless to the environment.

Overall, the idea is not bad, but as with any orbital launcher, there are lots of technical problems to be solved.

@dervheid

@ ASB

"I thought everyone knew that *submerged* submarines are easier to spot from the air than from the surface of the water.

Nowadays, I thought everyone knew that *submerged* submarines are easier to spot from space than from the surface of the water. The moving submarine causes a 'wake' in the surface, actually makes the water rise, and the sooper-sekrit spacecraft can bounce radar off the surface and see the change in water level.

Re: Anti Submarine Blimps in Texas?

The U-Boats specifically targeted tankers travelling from the Texan fields to join Atlantic convoys heading for the UK, although they did spend most of their time taking potshots at tankers off the Florida coast where they could be seen silhouetted against the lights of Miami. It was only much later in the war that Florida enacted a lights-out policy and deprived Floridans of the spectacle of going to the beach to watch ships explode.

After World War II blimps continued to be used by the US Navy as anti-submarine and anti-aircraft radar pickets. They were so big the radar could be fitted inside the envelope. And when I say big - I mean REALLY big: